Samfok –the Association of Parents of Compulsory School Children in Reykjavík–, together with Móðurmál –the Association on Bilingualism–, and individual mother tongue schools organize ten conferences about school matters with a focus on parents of foreign origin in the Greater Reykjavík Area. This school year 2017-18, ten conferences in the biggest languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Lithuanian, Filippino, Vietnamese, Thai, Arabic, English, Russian) will be held.

Presentations and discussions will revolve around typical features of schools and leisure centres in Iceland, the collaboration of parents and schools, mother tongues and active bilingualism of children. The presentations will be in Icelandic and interpreted into the language of each conference.

The aim of the conferences is to inform parents and to create a platform to talk together about the school culture in Iceland and the interest, responsibility, and influence of parents on the study and well-being of their children.
The conferences will be held at the time of the other tongue classes in Hólabrekkuskóli, Fellaskóli, and Álfhólsskóli on Saturdays and Sundays and take around 2,5 hrs.

All school parents from the Greater Reykjavík Area are welcome.

The project´s further partners and supporters are W.O.M.E.N. –the Association of Women of Foreign Origin, Heimili og skóli– the Association of Parents in Iceland, the School and Leisure Department of the City of Reykjavík, the Ministry of Welfare, and Kópavogur.

Móðurmál organised its 5th annual conference on 25th and 26th August 2017. This time, the main theme was the comparison of mother tongue instruction in Sweden, Canada/Alberta, and Iceland. Two professionals were invited from the International and Heritage Languages Association in Edmonton, Alberta, and one from the Mother Tongue Center in Lund, Sweden. Dr. Josephine Pallard and Dr. Trudie Aberdeen introduced the Albertan model of heritage language education, its structure, and accreditation process which enables the students of heritage language school to collect credits for their further university studies. Silvia Cordero introduced the Swedish practice in which mother tongue instruction is provided by a regional authority and mother tongue classes take place in schools after school hours.

The conference was preceded by a meeting with City and State representatives at the office of the School and Leisure Department of the City of Reykjavík, in which the experts from Edmonton and Lund shared their knowledge about their subsequent models of provision of mother tongue instruction to bilingual children, and the accreditation processes.

At the conference, mother tongue teachers of Móðurmál presented the good practice, research, and projects that took place in the past school year, and the richness and the quality of their work were evident. The conference was finished with a workshop on project based heritage language teaching, given by Dr. Aberdeen. Parallelly with the conference, two author reading sessions took place. The first one was organized by the society Czech in Iceland who invited the author of children´s historical adventure books Veronika Válková. The second session took place at the end of the conference and Abenda Darko from the Ghanaian Móðurmál group read from her new book Folktales from Ghana.

Among guests were mother tongue teachers, school teachers, employees of the City of Reykjavík and researchers from the University of Iceland. The conference took place in Veröld, the house of Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, in collaboration with Vigdís International Centre for Multilingualism and Multicultural Understanding; wonderful refreshments were provided by Nice Catering Service.

The annual Móðurmál conference not only provides further professional training to teachers and creates a platform for meetings and discussions of interested participants from different professional backgrounds, but it also gives an excellent opportunity to community leaders, teachers, and artists to present their work.

Móðurmál thanks to the International and Heritage Languages Association in Edmonton, the Association of Friends of the Polish School in Reykjavík, Vigdís International Centre for Multilingualism and Intercultural Understanding, and the Department of Education and Youth of the City of Reykjavík for the financial and other support.

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Following visits and discussions of representatives of Móðurmál and the International and Heritage Languages Association in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in fall 2015 and 2016, spring 2017, and summer 2017, the two organisations concluded that formal collaboration would strengthen and profit them on many levels.

During the 5th annual conference of Móðurmál, two representatives of IHLA handed over a formal letter from the chair of IHLA Ms Antonella Cortese to the chair of Móðurmál, Ms Renata Emilsson Peskova, that confirmed that the two associations of mother tongue/heritage language school became sister organisations.

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Móðurmál and IHLA share common goals and they work towards the same ends, that is to support and promote mother tongues/heritage languages of plurilingual children, and to assist teachers, schools, and families in their efforts to sustain and develop mother tongue/heritage language learning and instruction.

Videos about IHLA here and here

The formal collaboration started with the exchange of expertise and experience of board members and coordinators, but it will also, not less importantly, take place on the individual level, among teachers, groups, between children and communities. The cooperation will continue next spring when a representative of the Filipino group “Inangwika” visits the Filipino community in Edmonton in spring 2018, to plan for further collaboration and strategic steps, and to give a professional development (PD) session for IHLA teachers.

Bókasafnið Móðurmáls samanstendur af safnkosti (bækur, tímarit, dvd, cd, hljóðbækur o.fl.) ýmsra móðurmálsskóla innan Móðurmáls. Bækur eru aðallega barna- og unglingabækur, þó sumir móðurmálsskólar eigi líka bækur fyrir fullorðna, kennsluefni og annað fræðsluefni.

Eins og staðan er í dag, hefur bókasafnið ekki einn sama stað. Hver og einn skóli geymir sér um að útvega sjálfur stað fyrir sitt efni. Móðurmál á einnig sinn safnkost, eru það aðallega barnabækur sem samtökunum hefur verið gefið og eru þær ekki bundnar við ákveðið tungumál. Móðurmál getur því átt bækur á spænsku líkt og spænski móðurmálshópurinn.

Markmið bókasafns Móðurmáls er að gera safnkostinn sýnilegan og auka aðgengi fyrir börn af erlendum uppruna, t.d. með skráningu í landskerfi bókasafna Gegni. Með því býðst börnum af erlendum upppruna tækifæri á að fá bækur lánaðar með millisafnaláni í skólann sinn. Þetta er í augnablikinu bara bundið við Reykjavík, en við stefnum að því að reyna að veita öllum börnum sama tækifæri. Þau geta því bætt lestarfærni sína og markmiðið er í samræmi við þjóðarsáttmála um læsi.

Byrjað var að skrá safnkostinn í sjálfboðavinnu í desember 2016. Móðurmál er heppið að hafa sjálfboðaliða innan samtakanna sem er jafnframt með skrásetjararéttindi. Áætlað er að safnkosturinn sé um 8000 þúsund eintök og bætist jafnt og þétt í hann. Um miðjan ágúst 2017 var búið að skrá 1650 titla eða um 1830 eintök. Safnkosturinn er allur skráður undir nafni Móðurmáls og er hægt að skoða hann með því að fara inn á leitir.is og nota leitarorðið MODPG.

Móðurmál leitar nú að samastað fyrir safnkostinn þar sem öll tungumál væru aðgengileg á einu stað bæði fyrir börn og fullorðna.

Móðurmál has a new board! 🎉 Congratulations, new members Magdalena and Dyah, and many thanks for all your help in the past year, Rósa Björg and Karim.

• Renata Emilsson Peskova, chair, Czech group
• Magdalena Elísabet Andrèsdòttir, vice-chair, Polish group
• Lovísa Sha Mi, treasurer, Chinese group
• Dyah Anggraini Choliqsdòttir, secretary, Indonesian group
• Lyudmila Zadorozhnya, board member, Russian group

Móðurmál had an extra meeting in the new office in Háaleitisbraut 13, that it shares with Samfok –Association of School Children´s Parents in Reykjavík–. Birgitta, the chair, attended the meeting to discuss the common project Allir með! and further collaboration. Thank you Samfok for a great place to be! ❤️

Móðumál would like to thank its partners and supporters in 2016/2017, in particular the School and Leisure Department of the City of Reykjavík and the Ministry of Welfare for their financial support, Fellaskóli, Hólabrekkuskóli, Landakotsskóli, Myllubakkaskóli, Álfhólsskóli, Kampur, Neskirkja, the City Library and the libraries in Kópavogur and Hafnarfjörður for housing mother tongue classes, Samfok, and our international partners, in particular IHLA –International and Heritage Language Association– for rich and fruitful cooperation.

Have a good, sunny, restful holiday, everyone, and see you at the beginning of the new school year 2017/2018

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On Saturday 27th of May, the city culture was celebrated for the 9th time in Reykjavík on the annual Multicultural Day.
The mayor launched the festival with a parade from the cathedral Hallgrímskirkja to the concert and conference hall Harpa.

The multicultural market at Harpa was from 2:00–5:00PM. There were exhibitions of various crafts, designs, foods and cultures both outside and inside the house. Performances were in Silfurberg from 2:30–5:00 PM, and international foods sold in the tent just outside Harpa.

Móðurmál was present and represented its work and its groups in Harpa. Many people were interested in the activity of Móðurmál, and asked i.e. about the number of mother tongue groups, what is taught, how many children are in Móðurmál, partnerships etc.

Renata, Magdalena, Lydia and Aurora answered all questions at the Móðurmál booth. This was a great day for all and Móðurmál was very pleased to be a part of it.

Thank you for coming, everyone! ❤️

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This spring has been full of both traditional and unique events. Representatives of Móðurmál have introduced and presented the work of Móðurmál at the Multicultural Congress Let’s Talk on March 25th, where they had a chance to talk with professionals and passers-by. Approximately 17.000 immigrants from more than twenty countries live in Reykjavík who speak about one hundred languages. The Multicultural Congress is organized by the Human Rights Office of Reykjavík in Collaboration with Multicultural Council of Reykjavík.

A month later, on April 25th, Móðurmál signed a contract with SAMFOK, the Alliance of Parent´s Associations and Parent´s Councils of Elementary Schools in Reykjavík, about sharing the office in Háaleitisbraut 11–13, and moving the legal address there. Furthermore, Móðurmál and SAMFOK will collaborate on other projects, i.e. parent counselling.

Another month later, the Minister of Education and Culture Kristján Þór Júlíusson, together with the representative of Heimili og Skóli –the National Parents Association–, visited Móðurmál in its new office and received information about its work, mother tongue groups and languages, library, teacher training etc. The visit took place in connection with the award from Heimili og Skóli that Móðurmál received in 2016.

For the first time in Móðurmál’s twenty-year-old history, groups work together on a common project for a whole year!

Parents of bilingual children work hard to prepare them for the future that will entail using their languages and cherishing connections to all countries where their parents come from and where their extended families still live.

However, the future would be unthinkable without the Planet Earth and its resources. So children from Móðurmál mother tongue groups have been exploring the globe from the ecological perspective, using their languages to understand complicated concepts, learn about their own resources, work on projects, present their creations and take part in common events.

The project was presented at the annual conference of Móðurmál “Beautiful Languages” in November 2016, on the International Mother Language Day in February 2017 and the Children’s Festival in April 2017. At the Children’s Festival, the twelve participating groups presented a multilingual ecological dictionary and together with the Lithuanian school prepared word games and a cultural program.

As a conclusion of a year-long project, Móðurmál organized a field trip for students, teachers, and parents to the educational and entertainment exhibition “Orkuverið Jörð” in Reykjaness on May 13th.

Grófin Culture House traditionally prepared a program for plurilingual children and invited Móðurmál to introduce our program and activities.

We celebrated the International Mother Language Day by inviting children and their families to write letters in their own mother language to a relative or a friend, whether they live in Svalbard, Siglufjörður or Senegal.

Easy instructions for how to make an envelope-letter and postboxes were in each and every library. A big red “real” postbox we borrow from the post-service was placed at Grófin Culture House. The letters from all the libraries were collected, stamped and put into the red postbox. The Post Service came and made sure the letters would travel to all relatives and friends.

Móðurmál presented among other things also the environmental project Children research natural and language resources

Check the website for the International Mother Language Day 2017 here